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Electricity savings greater than purchase costs after just one year

Energy-saving lamps – good for the wallet and the environment

Energy-saving lamps from OSRAM are long-distance runners when it comes to saving electricity and money. This is the verdict of a series of tests conducted by the German consumer association “Stiftung Warentest” and published in the January 2007 edition of its “test” magazine. The OSRAM Dulux EL Longlife was the outright winner with more than 19,000 hours of uninterrupted operation. With energy-saving fluorescent lamps and energy-saving halogen lamps anyone can contribute to global climate protection and at the same time take some pressure off the household bills.

Source: OSRAM

Energy-saving lamps consume up to 80 percent less electricity than ordinary light bulbs for the same amount of light and last up to 15 times longer. An ordinary light bulb will burn on average for only 1000 hours. And it converts 95% of the energy it consumes into heat and only 5% into light. This means that a large proportion of electricity and therefore money goes straight into heating the surrounding air. The extra electricity means higher carbon dioxide emissions. If we consider purchase costs and operating costs over a period of 15 years the OSRAM Dulux EL Longlife energy-saving lamp will save more than 170 euros compared with ordinary light bulbs. The higher purchase price is offset in just one year.

Energy-saving lamps are good for climate protection
Energy-saving lamps are not only good for the wallet, they also help protect the environment. Over its entire life of around 15 years an OSRAM Dulux EL Longlife energy-saving lamp will save a total of one megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity and half a tonne of CO2 emissions. That’s more than a tree can absorb in this period. “In this way, each individual can make a positive contribution to climate protection. The overall effect would be phenomenal, because artificial lighting accounts for 19% of worldwide electricity consumption”, said Dr. Ralf Criens, Sustainability Officer at OSRAM. There is also immense potential for savings not just in replacing incandescent lamps.

In addition to compact fluorescent lamps, halogen lamps will now joined the ranks of “energy-saving wonders”. OSRAM Halogen Energy Savers will be launched in the summer. They offer energy savings of up to 30 percent compared with ordinary light bulbs – and last twice as long. A wide range of OSRAM Halogen Energy Saver lamps will be available for all conventional holders – with all the benefits of halogen such as brilliant light and excellent color rendering.

“Often, there is further potential for energy savings from fluorescent lamps even though they are already extremely economical. If the whole world upgraded to the latest technology with dimmable electronic control gear and intelligent lighting control systems there would be savings of around 320 million MWh of electricity and 160 million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. This corresponds to the annual CO2 emissions from all the road traffic in Germany”, said Criens.

Energy savings lamps offer high quality of light and a wide variety
Nowadays, energy saving is no longer synonymous with a compromise on comfort. What started more than 20 years ago at OSRAM with the invention of the screw base energy-saving lamp is now a wide range of energy-saving and money-saving lamps for every possible application.

The range now includes everything from classic energy-saving lamps in bulb, candle and globe shapes to halogen lamps in various shapes and sizes for low-voltage and high-voltage applications. The latest addition from OSRAM is the world’s first infinitely dimmable energy-saving lamp, the OSRAM Dulux EL 20W Dim. This technological development is in line with continual increases in the quality of light. For a long time now, energy-saving lamps have been producing a warm and pleasant light.

Sample calculation for 15,000 hours/100 W output:

1000 HOURS = 1 YEAR (APPROX. 3 HOURS/DAY)
15000 HOURS = 15 YEARS (APPROX. 3 HOURS/DAY)

Press contact:

OSRAM

Lars Stühlen
Tel: +49-89-6213-2597
Fax: +49-89-6213-3457
Email: l.stuehlen@osram.com